CTIA Urges FCC to Move Quickly on AWS-3 Reauction
CTIA urged the FCC to schedule an AWS-3 reauction without delay and dismiss calls for a tribal licensing window, according to reply comments on a March public notice on FCC bidding procedures. The record that’s been developed “demonstrates broad support for the Commission’s proposed procedures, including the efficient, time-tested Clock-1 auction format,” CTIA said this week in docket 25-117. In initial comments, the group disagreed sharply with tribal interests that urged a tribal window (see 2504110040).
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AT&T also called for quick reauction of the licenses that affiliates of Dish Network returned to the FCC in 2023, as well as unsold licenses from the initial AWS-3 auction 10 years ago. Most comments support the proposed procedures, AT&T said. “This is not surprising: the proposed procedures have been proven successful and would result in a robustly competitive, prompt, and successful auction.”
AT&T opposed EchoStar's and the Competitive Carriers Association’s (CCA) advocacy of a $3.3 billion aggregate reserve price for the auction: “Such a requirement makes a failed auction much more likely.”
Verizon urged the FCC to schedule an auction in the last quarter of 2025 to “give bidders adequate time to build bidding strategies and secure financing for this unique auction, while ensuring that this critical spectrum is put into service as soon as possible.” The carrier said the FCC should avoid changes to the rules that could complicate bidding and “undermine the success” of an auction. Neither of the comments “urging the adoption of an aggregate reserve price in this auction offer compelling reasons.”
CCA countered that reserve prices are “insurance against unacceptably low prices” that present “little to no risk that the auction will fail.” CCA also opposed a two-year buildout deadline, which T-Mobile has suggested. “CCA agrees that the AWS-3 spectrum should be placed into use as quickly as possible, and that carriers are already very incentivized to do so,” but “a hard two-year buildout requirement … may not be appropriate for all situations,” the filing said. It cited as an example the challenges of “construction season limitations in some very remote and rural areas.”